Russia accuses the US of producing medium-range missiles, publishes satellite images of missile manufacturing facility
Russian Defense Ministry stated that the USA government is allegedly going to manufacture medium-range missiles in the state of Arizona. The Ministry published a satellite image on its Twitter page which allegedly shows the US missile manufacturing facility.
“According to data available at the Russian Ministry of Defense, even before accusing Russia of violating the INF treaty, the United States started preparations for the production of medium and shorter-range missiles two years ago,” the report said.
По имеющимся в Минобороны России данным, в США еще за два года до обвинений РФ в нарушении ДРСМД приступили к подготовке к производству ракет средней и меньшей дальностиhttps://t.co/xWJy9nNR9d#Минобороны #ДРСМД pic.twitter.com/B3GxwkpKrT
— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) February 2, 2019
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the area of the manufacturing facility has “increased” from 55,000 to 79,000 square meters in two years. The number of employees has increased by two thousand people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will also pull out from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the TASS news agency reports.
“We will act in the following way. Our response will be a mirror [response]. Our American partners announced that they are stopping their participation in the treaty, we will also stop. They announced that they are engaging in scientific research and development operations, we will do the same thing,” Putin said during a meeting with Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Putin also gave orders to stop the attempts to initiate negotiations concerning the INF Treaty, noting that Russia’s offers “remain on the table” and that “the doors for negotiations are open”.